Mars Science Laboratory Heatshield Flight Data Analysis

Mahzari, Milad; White, Todd

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NASA NTRS · 20170011049

Mars Science Laboratory Heatshield Flight Data Analysis

Mahzari, Milad·White, Todd

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Abstract

NASA Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), which landed the Curiosity rover on the surface of Mars on August 5th, 2012, was the largest and heaviest Mars entry vehicle representing a significant advancement in planetary entry, descent and landing capability. Hypersonic flight performance data was collected using MSLs on-board sensors called Mars Entry, Descent and Landing Instrumentation (MEDLI). This talk will give an overview of MSL entry and a description of MEDLI sensors. Observations from flight data will be examined followed by a discussion of analysis efforts to reconstruct surface heating from heatshields in-depth temperature measurements. Finally, a brief overview of MEDLI2 instrumentation, which will fly on NASAs Mars2020 mission, will be presented with a discussion on how lessons learned from MEDLI data affected the design of MEDLI2 instrumentation.

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Mahzari, Milad, White, Todd. 2017-06-21. Mars Science Laboratory Heatshield Flight Data Analysis. https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20170011049

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